A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, ArchitectureWaters, Clara Erskine Clement
History
A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
Art -- History
PABLO DE CESPEDES (1538-1608) was born at Cordova, and is an important
person in the history of his time, for he was a divine, a poet, and a
scholar, as well as an architect, sculptor, and painter. He was a graduate
of the University of Alcala, and excelled in Oriental languages. He
studied art in Rome, and while there made a head of Seneca in marble, and
fitted it to an antique trunk; on account of this work he was called
"Victor il Spagnuolo." Zuccaro was asked to paint a picture for the
splendid Cathedral of Cordova; he declined, and said that while Cespedes
was in Spain they had no need of Italian artists. The pictures of Cespedes
which now remain are so faded and injured that a good judgment can
scarcely be formed of them; but they do not seem to be as fine as they
were thought to be in his day. His "Last Supper" is in the Cathedral of
Cordova. In the foreground there are some jars and vases so well painted
that visitors praised them. Cespedes was so mortified at this that he
commanded his servant to rub them out, and only the most judicious
admiration for the rest of the picture and earnest entreaty for the
preservation of the jars saved them from destruction. He left many
writings upon artistic subjects and an essay upon the antiquity of the
Cathedral of Cordova. He was as modest as he was learned, and was much
beloved. He was made a canon in the Cathedral of Cordova, and was received
with "full approbation of the Cordovese bishop and chapter."
FRANCISCO PACHECO (1571-1654) was born at Seville. He was a writer on art,
and is more famous as the master of Velasquez and on account of his books
than for his pictures. He established a school where younger men than
himself could have a thorough art education. Pacheco was the first in
Spain to properly gild and paint statues and bas-reliefs. Some specimens
of his work in this specialty still exist in Seville.
FRANCISCO DE HERRERA, the elder (1576-1656), was a very original painter.
He was born at Seville, and never studied out of Andalusia. He had so bad
a temper that he drove his children and his pupils away from him. He knew
how to engrave on bronze, and made false coins; when his forgery was
discovered, he took refuge with the Jesuits. While in their convent
Herrera painted the history of St. Hermengild, one of the patron saints of
Seville. When Philip IV. saw his picture he forgave him his crime, and set
him at liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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